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Saturday, September 05, 2009

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR-PAKISTAN:

SNEAKY TEA:

Molly has reported before on this blog about the continuingstruggles of workers employed by Unilever/Lipton in Pakistan to obtain decent paying regular work. This will undoubtedly be an ongoing story. Here's the latest story and appeal from the international union federation, theIUF.

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Addressing Poverty' at Unilever Pakistan: the Politics of Retribution:

Casual workers at Unilever's Lipton tea factory in Khanewal, Pakistan formed an Action Committee last year to challenge their disposable status and fight for their rights. As documented meticulously on this site, members have been denied work, demoted and pushed into even deeper poverty in an attempt to break their resistance.

Look beneath the surface - how does Unilever address the poverty of its own, increasingly disposable workforce? How are they contributing to socially sustainable employment?

Presumably because Unilever's other tea factory in Pakistan - a nameless enterprise on Unilever-owned land run by former Unilever managers with Unilever equipment, staffed by 100% casual workers - is unable to keep up with the surge in demand presented in the company's latest annual report, production has increased at the Unilever- owned and operated Khanewal plant. So management has been forced to call on the skills of its casual Khanewal workers, many of them trained in advanced quality control practices (but denied direct employment status).

So Action Committee members are working more hours - but management has been meticulous in seeing to it that workers demanding their rights are still denied the 26 days' work per month they need to qualify for the minimum wage. They're still being paid 252 Rupees per day - the equivalent of slightly over 3 US dollars.

In June and July this year, only one Action Committee member qualified for the monthly minimum wage by working 27 days. The politics of retribution still condemn the hundreds of Action Committee members to even deeper poverty and exclusion.STOP DISCRIMINATION AND REPRISALS AGAINST THE KHANEWAL ACTION COMMITTEE WORKERS - CLICK HERE TO SEND A MESSAGE TO UNILEVER!

Tell corporate management to stop retaliating and start negotiating!. The Lipton Khanewal casual workers fighting for justice through their Action Committee must be given permanent, direct employment status.

Please click the link above to send the following letter to Unilever management.

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To Mr. Paul Polman, CEO UnileverYour website claims to recognize 'issues' in the disposable jobs regime in the Khanewal Lipton factory which limits direct employment to a mere 22 employees - and claims to be addressing them. It goes on to claim that you are willing to 'seek mediation' at the OECD.

In fact it is the IUF which approached the OECD. Unilever's response has been to collectively punish workers seeking their rights. While new casual workers are being employed at the same disposable jobs, Unilever management has been systematically denying work to members of the Action Committee, driving them deeper into poverty and debt. Employment discrimination must stop now! Make the Khanewal casual workers permanent through direct negotiations with the National Federation of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Workers of Pakistan!Yours sincerely,